Grandma Talk

Grandma in law (MIL's mother) come and stay with us while MIL is still admitted in the hospital. Grandma is 87 years old and she have a conscious mind. She is still able to take care for herself. She can bath herself and she can cook. She knows how to operate Astro channel controller, hand phone and washing machine. She is even able to knit. She knitted a fridge cover and a washing machine cover for me. The most amazing thing about her is she has a super good memory. She used to remember all our house phones and mobile phones. She is our telephone directory. ;P

Grandma told me about her life. A long long story indeed. I have to cut it short. Her father was from China. He was a contractor cum architect. He got a lot of contracts from government that time. He owned a village in Alor Setar, Kedah with more that 10 houses, and rented it to the villagers, and kept one big house for his own family. He had 2 sons and 3 daughters. There was a maid (ah sam) in charged to cook for the family. Besides, there were also another 3 maids (cha bo kan) hired to take care of his 3 daughters. Wow! I don't even know grandma is so "ho mia" (having a good life). Her mother fight for the daughters for education. The elders daughter managed to finished her secondary school and became a teacher. However, the 2nd (grandma) and the youngest daughter were only able to complete their primary school due to the war. The place was occupied and became a Japanese territory.

The village was forced to sold off during the war period. Each of the son get half of the land. The eldest son took care of his younger sisters. He married a nurse who is very generous. Now, one of their son is a millionaire, the director for a car manufacturer. Maybe this is called karma. He treated people well, and his family earn a good living.

Now among all the siblings, left only my grandma and our grandaunt (三姨婆). Grandma married a F&N distributor and got the only one daughter which is my MIL. MIL is now a retired teacher. Grandpa passed away when MIL still very small. For grandaunt, she married a rich husband, who owned a bus company, and a radio shop. They have 9 children, who are lawyer, doctor, nurse, teacher,... That's amazing!

According to grandma, Dr Mahathir was a famous doctor in Alor Setar. He opened a clinic, and grandma was his patient before. :)